Per Stjernquist

Who was Per Stjernquist?

Per Sternquist was a Swedish law professor who was almost single-handedly responsible for establishing the teaching of the new field of sociology of law in Sweden from the 1960s.

Stjernquist had begun his career as a local judge and court official. He became a doctoral student of the celebrated 'realist' jurist Karl Olivecrona in the 1940s but, as a left-leaning liberal, soon fell out with his supervisor over Olivecrona's authoritarian politics and vocal support in the war years for Nazi Germany's hegemony in Europe.

He was professor of civil law at Lund University from 1950 to 1972 and rector of the university through the turbulent years of the late 1960s. His publications set the dominant orientation of Swedish sociology of law, and he supervised generations of research students in the subject. His first seminar in sociology of law was taught in 1963. The subject, then regarded by many jurists as subversive or unnecessary, was offered initially for administrative science students but soon attracted students from many disciplines. The Chair of Sociology of Law at Lund was created specially for him in 1972, as an initiative of the Swedish government.